Ref.2315
Antique Napoleon III style oak wood fireplace with ""JF"" initials

Large antique oak wood fireplace in the Napoleon III style from the second half of the 19th century. The straight lines of this antique fireplace are decorated with foilage carved in low relief. The central frieze is decorated with a medallion with the initials ""JF"".

Ref.10252
Beautiful antique 18th century fireback with France and Navarre coat of arms

Ref.10570
Antique 18th-century fireback with the coat of arms of the Fontaine de Biré family

Rare antique fireback made during the 18th century and bearing the coat of arms of the Fontaine de Bire family : Azure to chevron with two clovers and a sheaf the whole of gold. The Fontaine de Bire family is originating from Anjou, France. One of his most famous representatives, Marie-Sébastien-Charles-François Fontaine de Biré, asked for his bust in marble by Jean-Antoine Houdon in 1785, which can quite correspond to the date of realization of our fireback. This bust is now preserved at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, USA.

Ref.3438
Antique Napoleon III style fireplace in Belgian Black marble with Fior di Pesco marble inlays

This antique Napoleon III style fireplace was made in the 19th century in a beautiful Belgium black marble , also called "Fine Black of Belgium", and decorated with inlays in Fleur de Pêcher marble (Fior du Pesco). The tapered legs are fluted while the rudentures are madeout of Fleur de Pêcher marble. The frieze is composed of three molded panels also inlaid with Fleur de Pêcher marble.

Ref.3449
Large antique oak wood fireplace, Regence style, 1st half of the 19th c.

This antique Regence style fireplace was made in the first half of the 19th century in oak wood. The rounded and paneled jambs support a frieze delicately curved  and adorned with stylized curves. Fine and elongated, this fireplace has important dimensions.

Ref.2566
Antique Napoleon III style fireplace with lion's paws in Carrara marble

This antique Napoleon III style fireplace was made in the 19th century in subtly veined Carrara marble. Jambs with lions’s paws, typical of the Napoleon III style, are adorned with large leaves which drop down. They support a frieze decorated at its ends with naturalistic rosettes inspired by the Louis XVI style. This fireplace, imposing and elegant, has important dimensions.

Ref.10456
Two hearts burning on an altar, antique small Louis XVI period fireback

This antique Louis XVI style fireback was made in the 18th century. While two hearts are burning on an altar decorated with laurel branches, a putti flying in the sky holds in one of his hands a crown of leaves and in the other hand an arrow pointing to the altar.

Ref.10984
Antique cast iron fireback with the Joly family coat of arms, 18th century

This antique cast iron fireback was made in the 18th century. It is decorated with the arms of the Joly family, lords of La Grange, of La Borde,of Fleury and of Blaisy en Bourgogne.

Ref.4073
Antique Louis XVI style fireplace in Bleu Turquin marble and statuary marble

Antique two tone Louis XVI style fireplace, carved in the 19th century in Blue Turquin and statuary marble with a beautiful frieze running along the entablature and square rosettes at the ends, and on the jambs carved with fluting

Ref.12841
Jules LOEBNITZ (1836 – 1895), Ceramic panel “Child with a flower”

This rectangular panel made of enameled ceramic made by Jules Loebnitz in the second half of the 19th century depicting a child holding a bow in one hand and a flower in the other one from a painting by Emile Lévy (1826 – 1890). The Pichenot-Loebnitz factory was founded by Mr Pichenot, grand parent of Jules Loebnitz, in 1833. From 1841, Mr Pichenot had started the fabrication of uncrackable earthenware panels for mantel's interiors, showed with success during the Exhibition of 1844. Breaking with the traditional fabrication of white heating system, the Pichenot-Loebnitz factory, was one of the first to start the production of architectural earthenware decorations. In 1857, Jules Loebnitz, artist as much as an industrial, succeeded to his grand father and became director of the factory. He helped renovating the old mantels tiles during the restoration of the Castle of Blois before collaborating with the most important architects of his time Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Laval, Charles Garnier, Just Lisch et Paul Sédille. Between the architect Paul Sédille and Jules Loebnitz, a true friendship was born that leads them to collaborate very closely from 1867. The architectural polychromy theoretician had met the man that has brought important progresses to French ceramic, allowing the making of important uncrackable earthenware panels. Thus, during the Great Exhibition of 1878, Paul Sédille realized the door of the Palais des Beaux-arts, while Jules Loebnitz was in charge of the ceramic decoration of the facade, in order to advocate the renewed of architectural polychromy. For this purpose, he made a series of three panels taking as a model the paintings of Emile Lévy, kept today in the Musée de la céramique architecturale of Auneuil, depicting the Painting, the Sculpture and the Architecture, transposed to enamel by Lazar Meyer, a student of the painter. The Painting depicts a scene on which we can see a man painting three naked women in the characteristic position of the Three Graces. Cupid, asking for a flower held by one of the woman, has most likely been used too as a model for the one we can see on our panel, as they have the exact same body position. Indeed, the naked child with his red hair is standing by its profile on both panels, the left leg is out straight, the other is bend. He's holding in his left hand a bow and straight out his other hand to the sky, toward where he is looking. The difference is visible with the representation of the flower that the child is holding in our panel. On the contrary of the original painting, the background is abstract, the only décor is the flower behind the child. We also find on one of the plate from La brique et la terre cuite by Pierre Chabt – book that has contributed to the success of the manufactory after it was published in the 1880’s – a panel depicting the same subject with a different background. This model is today kept in the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.

Ref.13030
Beautiful antique fireback with Albert de Luynes's coat of arms, 17th century

This beautiful antique fireback was made in the 17th century. It shows the coat of arms of the Albert de Luynes family hold by two savage men with a ducal crown, a peer coat and the king's orders. Born on December,25th 1620 in the Louvre and dead on the 10th of Octobre 1690 in Paris, Louis-Charles d'Albert de Luynes second duke of Luynes and peer of France, was a translator and moralist. He was the first one to translate in French the work of René Descartes. We also owe him many moral and devotion books. Son of Charles d'Albert, duke of Luynes, Louis XIII's favorite, and of Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, Louis-Charles d'Albert de Luynes was received to the parliament as a peer on November, 24th 1639 and as knight to the king's order on December, 31th 1661. He lived for a long time with the Solitaires of Port-Royal, building a castle in Vaumurier, very close to the Port-Royal-des-Champs Abbey where he received Blaise Pascal and the young Jean Racine. He was also distinguished on the head of his regiment attacked by the Spannish in Arras on August, 2nd 1640 and for many other occasions. After his death, his body was brought to the church of the hospital de Luynes that he founded and exhumed there. An identical fireback is kept on the hôtel Bouthillier de Chavigny, 7 rue de Sévigné à Paris, and illustrated on Philippe Palasi's book "Heraldic firebacks"

Ref.13171
CRISTALLERIE DE BACCARAT, Neo-Greek, krater-shaped vase, made out of coated crystal, and etched through hydrofluoric acid, 1867 World’s Fair

This krater-shaped vase made out of coated crystal is a work from the Baccarat crystal-glass making factory, between 1862 and 1867, year when similar models were displayed at the Parisian World’s Fair. It is the Baccarat manufacture’s second entry, the first being at the first Parisian World’s Fair of 1855. Baccarat does win a gold medal, in particular for two vases made out of ruby red crystal, and a crystal fountain of seven meters high. Created under Louis XV’s reign, the crystal-glass making factory got its international fame through its participations, all along the 19th century, and until 1937, to the World’s Fairs.he works of the manufacture are scarcely signed between 1764 and 1860, year where the first labels did appear punctually. Fifteen years later, a seal with the name of the firm is placed on some blowing models and gilded bronze pieces. It is not until 1936 that the « BACCARAT » brand, with a carafe and two glasses, started appearing systematically on every production. During the 1867 World’s Fair, Baccarat inspired itself from the Bacchus cult for most of its production. We can see in our vase the influence of ancient ceramics through the shape of a krater – a piece of ceramics used by Greeks to dilute wine with water – as well as in the composition and the decoration’s subject. The latest is engraved thanks to hydrofluoric acid, a technical mastered by the German chemist Louis Kessler in 1855, who did improve the chemical formula of the bath to make it less aggressive and thus, less dangerous. Baccarat bought the patent in 1864, allowing the manufacture to diverse its production and to reach a new level of virtuosity. Detaching themselves from an opaque, white background, pink colored figures are represented in the spirit of ancient decorations on ceramics. We can see on one face a maenad wearing a spinning drapery, holding a drinking cup in one hand and a thyrsus in the other – a stick similar to a scepter and crowned with a pine cone, Dionysus’s attribute. On the other side, two figures are placed face to face, a masculine and a feminine one. They might represent the divine couple of Dionysus and Ariadne : she is sat on an ancient seat, richly dressed, and addressing the half-naked young man that is also carrying a thyrsus. In order for this decoration to be perfect, the two figurative scenes are framed with different patterns : palm motif, interlacing, Greek key frieze and laurel leaves.The handles have been realized after : they were shaped in clear crystal, and then adorned with gold painting applied with a brush. Even if, until today, our vase is the only one known showing this krater shape and the color rose, other similar models, with similar decorations, does exist – in particular in blue and yellow. Moreover, this bacchanal scene on an opaque white background have been applied on other pieces produced by the firm, that can be seen in museums’ collections, such as the Corning Museum of Glass, the Chrysler Museum of Norfolk, the Musée d’Orsay or at the Petit Palais.

Ref.5111
Louis XV style Carrara marble mantel with carved floral décor

This Louis XV style mantelpiece was carved in Carrara marble in the 19th century. At the centre of the lintel, a cartouche with carved curves and counter curves features a fish fin ending in a shell pattern. On either side are delicately carved flowers, all different, and acanthus leaves. The gently curving jambs are also adorned with floral cartouches, and end in scrolls at each end. The sides are moulded. The cast iron interior follows the same curves as the mantelpiece, with interlacing and plant patterns.

Ref.5146
Louis XVI style molded Arabescato marble mantel

Ref.14914
BOCH Frères, Art Nouveau Vase in Iridescent Faience Decorated with a Toad and Mushrooms, late 19th century

This iridescent faience vase with a toad and mushroom motif was created by the Boch Frères manufactory in the late 19th century. In 1841, Eugène and Victor Boch founded a fine faience manufactory called Kéramis in La Louvière, Belgium. The faience factory quickly flourished and diversified its production, adapting to the stylistic and technical evolutions of the time. This particular vase is emblematic of the Art Nouveau movement, as evidenced by its asymmetrical design directly inspired by nature: the body of the vase takes the form of a tree stump. Wider and rounded at the base due to roots seemingly ready to plunge into the earth, it rises to a certain height before ending with an irregular rim. Several mushrooms, among which an agaric, grow on it, and a toad climbs at the base of the stump. The vase features an iridescent glaze transitioning from pink to violet, lightening to white on the mushrooms and darkening to brown on the toad. This glazing demonstrates the high level of mastery achieved by certain artists and the most important manufactories at the end of the 19th century. The mark under the base indicates that the manufactory had a subsidiary in Thiais, in the Seine department. A vase of the same shape but with a slightly different glaze – where pink blends with yellow-orange, green, and blue (and the toad appears black) – was noted by expert Alain Cical.

Ref.15013
BACCARAT, Crystal Vase with Neo-Greek Decoration, circa 1867

This vase was executed by the Baccarat manufacture, which presented several pieces with similar decoration at the 1867 World’s Fair; it can therefore be dated to this period. Founded under Louis XV, the French crystal manufacture Baccarat demonstrated its excellence and creativity at the World Fairs throughout the 19th century. This double-layered crystal vase, etched with acid, adopts the shape of a crater, a vessel in which wine and water were mixed before meals in ancient Greece. Its decoration, blue on a white background, is also inspired by ancient Greece: the body is adorned with a figure of a young ephebe playing cymbals and a woman, probably a bacchante, dancing. Below the handles, there is a stylized decoration of scrolls and palmettes, while the base and neck are adorned with regular friezes. These elements are highlighted with gold. The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk (USA) and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris both have a Neo-Greek vase in the shape of an amphora executed by Baccarat around 1867, whose blue and white double crystal decorations are very similar to ours.

Ref.5563
Cheminée de style Napoléon III en marbre noir moucheté

Ref.3569
Small Louis XV mantel in Carrara marble

Ref.3637
Louis XVI style mantel with sunflower blossom in Carrara marble

Ref.6008
Louis XVI period fireplace, sculpted in Rouge Royal, decorated with a vitruvian frieze

Ref.6023
Louis XV style fireplace, Pompadour model, in light blue turquoise marble

Ref.6035
Louis XVI style fireplace with a central sunflower, in Carrara marble

Ref.6083
Louis XVI style fireplace in blue turquoise marble

Ref.6131
Louis XVI period fireplace in red northern marble, slightly curved

Ref.6126
Louis XVI style fireplace in Arabescato marble